mooncakes – Bradley Farless

Ok, so before I came to Singapore, if you’d asked me if I wanted a Moon Cake, I would’ve thought you were joking. It sounds like something out of a fairy tale. Moon Cakes, fairies, magic mushrooms… you get the point.

But, lo and behold, there are in fact moon cakes and they are… very good! Well, I suppose it depends on where you get them, but the ones I’ve had are good.

Here are pictures and descriptions of the two types I’ve tried so far:

This moon cake was given to me by the people I stay with here in Singapore. I’m not sure where it’s from or what the flavor name is exactly, but I was told it’s supposed to be champagne. It certainly tasted like it had some sort of alcohol in it. It was rather soft, but not squishy. The texture is thick and almost creamy. That white thing in the middle was an edible capsule that contained a thick brown cream that carried a heavy taste of alcohol. Overall, it was an interesting and satisfying treat.

This next one is Jade Custard flavored. It didn’t taste like any custard I’ve had before, but it was pleasant. The flavor is mild and again it had a thick, almost creamy consistency to it, though you can see from the pictures that the filling in both was more solid than fluid. This one had a white center. Not really sure what it was, but it was good too.

I’m not really aware of any special observances that go along with eating moon cakes, or if you’re supposed to do it in a particular way. I heard from a friend though that if you’re looking for the best moon cakes in Singapore you should go to Raffles Hotel. I guess they make them in the kitchen there.

This is just a funny conversation I had this morning that I thought I’d share.

I went downstairs to make a small breakfast and the house maid was washing some dishes.

I dug around in the fridge a bit, looking for the Philadelphia Cream Cheese. I held up a cup and said, what’s this? “Bangus juice”, she replied. I paused. I knew I had misheard her, because bangus is a fish and whatever was in the cup smelled slightly tangy. I set it on the counter. I’d put it away when I packed the cream choose cheese back into its corner.

So, we started talking about Philadelphia Cream Cheese. She’d never had any before I let her try some a few weeks ago. The stuff is delicious! I need to go search around for some bagels. It’s great on bread, but it’s not really complete with the bagels!

As I put things back in the fridge I asked her again what was in the cup and this time it sounded like she said ‘burt juice‘.

“Butt juice?” I asked. She started laughing and went out on the balcony and came back with a can. Finally I understood. The can had a depiction of birds on it. What she had been trying to tell me was ‘bird juice‘.

So, she said “You know of the bird spit?”

“Uh, what?”

“Yes, the spit from the mouth of the bird. Chinese think is very delicacy, and it is very expensive and rare.”

I started imagining how many birds would have to be milked for saliva to fill a can that size and then I realized how disgusting the whole thing was.

“I think I’d rather eat chilled monkey brains than drink bird spit.”

“Oh! You’ve tasted of the monkey!?” she asked.

I pretended I wasn’t surprised at all.

She went to the fridge and came back with a tupperware which she opened. I peered in and there were four little cakes inside.

“This is the monkey?” I asked.

“No… this is mooncake.” she replied. So, I pretended I was only kidding, because I seriously thought it was monkey cake or some other weird thing. When you’ve got a cup full of bird spit in the fridge, why not?

She insisted I try one, and it’s sitting here on a plate next to me. I hope it’s good!

Tag: mooncakes

Delicious Mooncakes!

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